went on to describe Abrams as "a better action director" than Star Wars creator George Lucas

"All I can say is The Force Awakens evokes magical memories of 1977's Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope, with plenty of humour, action, drama and heart."

"Star Wars: The Force Awakens is actually probably objectively the best Star Wars yet, and would be held up as untouchable had it come first."

The New York Times was a bit calmer, but still very positive about the movie.

"Despite the pre-release hype, it won't save the world, not even Hollywood, but it seamlessly balances cosy favourites - Harrison Ford, ladies and gentlemen - and new kinetic wows along with some of the niceties that went missing as the series grew into a phenomenon, most crucially a scale and a sensibility that is rooted in the human."

While Total Film's Jamie Graham said: "If Episode VII is almost too slavishly reverential, its every sub-plot mirroring or reversing those that have gone before, and its nods and winks so plentiful as to border on the distracting, it is better this than to repeat [George] Lucas's prequel mistakes.

Saw it in 3D. Overall I liked it. But for entire length of movie I was under impression of something great is going to happen in the end with Jedi magic & Luke sky walker would come any minute but ended as dud. Harrison ford is too old to act and it's not great to see this grandpa struggle to act & puzzled by his death scene when he "acts" for full 5 minutes when a light saber is sent thru his stomach, so unreal for any grandpa survive that long instead of instant death.